Junior right-hander Jake Thompson pitched like the Friday night ace Long Beach State has anticipated since he arrived, allowing just a run and three hits and throwing his first career complete game as the Dirtbags opened the season with a 2-1 win over Pepperdine at Blair.

Thompson was efficient, effective and clutched when it was required. He threw just one ball in the first three innings, had a one hitter through six innings and needed just 105 pitches total to get the win.

“This was my game,” Thompson said regarding the complete game. “There was no way they were going to talk me out of it. I really wanted this.”

Mike Weathers had no intentions of taking him out. It may have been the first game of the season, but Thompson had maintained his focus all night and the game is a hoped-for harbinger of a good season.

“It was quite an exceptional start in what we hope is an exceptional year,” the head coach said. “His pitch count and we wanted him to finish. He spotted his fast ball well all night and had a little extra when he needed it.”

Thompson ran into trouble in the seventh when he hit Colin Rooney and gave up a single to Aaron Gates. After a sacrifice moved the runners to second and third, a run scored on a grounder – Lohman neatly throwing to third to get the lead runner – and Thompson struck out Ryan Van Amburg on a breaking ball to end the inning.

In the eighth, Joe Sever doubled over the glove of a diving Jordan Casas in center field with two out, but Thompson struck out Nate Johnson with a high fastball.

The Dirtbags grabbed a quick 1-0 lead against Pepperdine sophomore Cole Cook. Brennan Metzger singled to left, was sacrificed to second by Casas, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Devin Lohman’s single to left.

A hit batter, infield single by Casas and Lohman single loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but the Dirtbags only scored one run, on a fielder’s choice, and had a blown double steal.

Cole got out of two-on, one-out jams in the fourth and fifth with double play groundouts.

Thompson was making his first start under the pitching coach who recruited him. He arrived as a prodigy who gave up his senior season at Wilson to come to Long Beach and work under pitching coach Troy Buckley.

The pitching coach, however, left for a job with the Pittsburgh Pirates before his return for 2010, and Thompson’s two-year resume has had several peaks and valleys.

He allowed two just two hits, a walk and an unearned run in his 2008 debut against Rice, and followed that a seven-inning, two-run effort against Wichita State. But he had just three quality starts thereafter.

He was strong in his debut last season, too, allowing three hits, a walk and no runs in seven innings against USC. He threw an eight-inning one-hitter against UNLV and allowed an unearned run in an 8 <MD+,%30,%55,%70>2/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>3 inning win over UC Riverside. But he finished with three subpar efforts.

DIRTBAG NOTES: Oregon visits tonight at 5:30, with soph Drew Gagnon drawing the start. The Dirtbags play at Fullerton Sunday (1 p.m.) … T.J. Mittelstaedt, who has missed the last two weeks of practice because of an ineligibility issue related to an internship, is eligible but wasn’t in the starting lineup since he’s missed so many workouts … Joey Terdoslavich, the transfer from Miami making his Dirtbag debut, has a “Welcome to Blair Field” moment when his first inning shot to right-center was cut down by the evening air … Troy Tulowitzki, the former Dirtbag and current Colorado Rockies star, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. It was the first ceremonial first pitch since 2008 … Former Dirtbag head coach Dave Snow was also in attendance.

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